Granular laundry detergents, or laundry powders, typically comprise (A) one or more surfactants, such as alkyl sulfates, alkyl ether sulfates, alkylbenzene sulfonates, ethoxylated alkylphenols, ethoxylated alcohols, or amine oxides, and (B) one or more detergent builders, i.e., components which increase the detergent power of a surfactant and serve important functions such as sequestering undesirable metal ions from washing solutions, protecting anionic surfactants from precipitation, and the other functions mentioned in U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,167 (Collins et al.).
As indicated, e.g., in Collins et al. and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,492 (Curry et al.), various detergent builders (including sodium aluminum silicates) have been tested as substitutes for the environmentally-undesirable polyphosphates which were the preferred detergent builder components of these detergents at one time. However, the phosphate-free detergents hitherto obtained by replacing phosphate builders with other builders have required the use of relatively expensive materials and/or suffered a considerable loss in cleaning power because of that replacement.